SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – While many businesses had to pivot during the pandemic to make enough green. One small New Mexico business pivoted to help their city go green after finding out there wasn’t a place to recycle glass easily.

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Chris Bogle and his wife, Shelby Kaye are not only recycling they are also re-purposing it into beautiful works of art. Right off US-84 in Santa Fe, Broken Arrow Glass is sorting, sifting and blowing glass to create a new use. “Statistically in the United States, 30% of glass is recycled,” said Shelby. Chris and Shelby have been working with glass since 2016 but in 2020 they decided to re-brand and start a system to recycle glass in the Santa Fe area. “We offer a doorstep glass recycling pick-up program for residential and commercial use,” said Shelby.

They drop off bins to recycling collection members and collect them each month. “I’m receiving about five thousand bottles a month,” said Shelby.

Once they get the glass they decide which bottles will be crushed and used as an art material or landscaping and which bottles can be repurposed into cups. “Follow us and watch exactly how we are being zero waste and sustainable and ecofriendly with recycling,” said Shelby. It’s their way of showing you it takes just a little work to keep glass out of landfills.

“It takes one billion years for the bottle to decompose in the earth,” said Shelby.

Instead, they want you to put it in the right hands that will create new life. Everything they sell helps pay for new materials and rent. They are hoping to get a machine that will sort the glass after it’s been crushed.